Startup Drinks Lincoln Bringing Worldwide Networking Phenomenon to Star City

In business (to quote the age-old mantra), it’s often not what you know, but who you know. While that’s certainly sound advice, it doesn’t really offer any specifics; namely, who exactly that “who you know” happens to be. Toby Schroder — whose search engine optimization company Fierce Robot helps clients find the magic words to increase their Google Search prominence — is applying his expertise to a new area, helping entrepreneurs find the right people. This Thursday, Schroeder will host the first ever Startup Drinks Lincoln, an informal get-together for the city’s burgeoning small business community.

“I like going to other events, but the only part I really enjoy is after all the speakers and formalities are done we finally get to meet new people in a chill environment,” Schroder said. “What I hope to accomplish with Startup Drinks Lincoln is to simply hook people up with advice, or help people find the partner they need, or help them with their idea, etc. It’s networking without all the BS.”

So, what does a Startup Drinks outing entail? The Facebook page for Lincoln’s event may say it best:

“What is Startup Drinks? In short, it’s a drinking group with a startup problem. If you’re looking for a low key, unstructured way to get involved in the Lincoln entrepreneurial scene, Startup Drinks is the ticket.”

After seeing an announcement for Startup Drinks Omaha, Schroeder started plotting a way to create a similar event in Lincoln. The two Nebraska gatherings are part of a global development, with similarly motivated assemblies cropping in cities as far flung as Toronto and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Each new generation of entrepreneurs is tasked with modernizing the architecture erected by those who preceded them, and Startup Drinks appears to be one such tool in the arsenal of tech savvy young business owners.

“(The ubiquity of Startup Drinks) shows that younger people who are involved in the digital world and who are comfortable with social networking are slowly but surely taking over the business landscape,” Schroder said. “It’s been a longtime tradition in Silicon Valley that the young people are pushing the economy. Finally, the younger people in the Midwest are waking up and doing their own pushing.”

Like the debris from a detonated atom setting of an explosive chain reaction in nearby particles, the energy pulsing from one Startup Drinks event spurs the creation of several more. After reading about Schroder’s plans for Startup Drinks Lincoln back in February, Alexander Grgurich — part of Foundry Coworking, a low cost business incubator — was determined to set up Startup Drinks Des Moines. Along with two other collaborators, Grgurich successfully launched the city’s inaugural Startup Drinks session, attracting some 30 participants.

“It’s a really robust group,” Grgurich said. “A lot of times, networking events have a lot of big name people and it’s hard to identify with them. Here, we can focus on the startup culture. It’s nice to be able to talk to people and connect with them.”

Startup Drinks Lincoln will start Thursday, April 1 at 7:00 p.m. at Dino’s Eastside Grille, 2901 S 84th Street.

“Hopefully, there are other people feeling the same way as me, that there needs to be a group that has less formalities,” Schroder said.